21 Apr
1997
21 Apr
'97
1:20 a.m.
On Sat, 19 Apr 1997, Charles P. Hobbs wrote:
$3,500 for *5* megabytes? That's $700 per megabyte!
Jeez. In '81 when Radio Shack came out with their 8.4 MB hard drives for
the Model II, the first was $4,495 and the next three were only $3,495
each (since they didn't come with a controller). With a full-blown
system of 35 MB for $15,000, that wasn't much over $500/MB. Of course,
we thought we'd never be able to fill even one of those disks, what with
everything having to fit in 64 KB RAM. Of course, then Xenix for the
Model 16 showed up and we found there was a way...
By the way, how much did a Lisa cost new (back in 1983
or whenever)?
I remember a price of about $16,000 . . .
$9,995.00US at introduction in January of 1983. But that price did not
include the 5mb ProFile hard drive which would set you back another
$3,499.00US. When I think about it, then look at the Zip drive on
my desk
($150 for 100 megabytes = $1.50 per megabyte). . .
Yeah, my fiance and I have two of those, they're so handy. But a couple
of weeks ago I happened to notice that 4 GB IDE drives are now dropping
below $400. A dime per meg. I could cry. And I'll probably be picking
up a couple soon for some of my non-classic computers -- Linux can fill
any storage surplus you let it near.
--
Ward Griffiths
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails
of the last priest." [Denis Diderot, "Dithyrambe sur la fete de rois"]